Colored Lights on the Fire Escape
by Halawen
Summary: Asher assaulted her, Eli believed Asher's side and leaves Clare heartbroken on her birthday. But Ice Hounds Captain Mike Dallas can mend her broken heart and with some help from Owen maybe get her some vindication. Clallas fluff with a smidge of drama also featuring Adam, Drew, Bianca, Eli and Owen. One shot.
**Welcome to tonight's fluffy Clallas cuteness with a hint of drama.**

 **Legal: I own nothing but the idea.**

 **Important things to know before reading:**

 ***Clare never told Alli or Dallas about Asher**

 ***she never got tipsy with Dallas they never kissed and there was never a feud**

 ***Adam began dating Jenna shortly after she and K.C. broke up**

 **And that pretty much does it enjoy the shot!**

 **Colored Lights on the Fire Escape**

 **(CLARE)**

"No one invited you get out," Eli demands to Dallas and the other Ice Hounds. They appear to have invited themselves to my surprise birthday party.

"I don't think it's your call it's not your birthday," Dallas shoots back.

I decide I don't want to be involved in this fight. I run down the hall ducking into the last room which is apparently Drew's room. I close the door and sit on the bed, some birthday this has turned out to be. I sit on Drew's bed putting my head in my hands. A few moments later the door opens and I look up to see Eli come in.

"The alpha male jocks are staying. Adam talked to Dallas and they promised to behave and Adam pointed out fighting would ruin your party," Eli tells me.

"I don't mind that they're here. I guess I should get back out there," I comment standing up.

"Wait we need to talk," Eli says catching my hand before I can walk out, "I went to Asher today to convince him to give you your job back."

"You did what?"

"He told me you got fired for inappropriate behavior because you were in love with him. You came onto your boss a…"

"He kissed me, he tried to assault me in his car," I respond with a sharp angry and offended tone that my boyfriend would believe Asher.

"You were fawning over him since the moment you found out he was your mentor. You went out to lunch with him; you didn't want him to know we were dating what am I supposed to think?"

"You're supposed to know I wouldn't cheat and I would never do something like coming on to my boss. I wanted to impress him from a professional standpoint I would never throw myself at anyone let alone my boss. We were working on your article and he kissed me! He a…"

"He kissed you and I'm sure you liked it. I told you I didn't want to do this unless you were all in and you lied. I can't do this anymore we're done, go be happy with your pedophile," Eli growls and storms out of the room.

I'm left standing there furious and aghast that Eli would not only believe Asher but instead of talking to me when he heard Asher's side he didn't even get my side. Not only did he not believe me he didn't even hear my side, he didn't want to hear my side and then he broke up with me at my party on my birthday!

I feel so betrayed and like I can't even breathe, I feel like I need air but I don't want to face anyone else. I run to Drew's window and get it open; when I see the fire escape I climb out and sit on the steps. I don't mind the cold metal or the chilled wind I just burst into tears. The soft colored lights from the nearby traffic and streetlights make a psychedelic show through the blur of my tears. Tears of pain and sorrow and anger over everything, Asher not only told his boss I came onto him but now he's told Eli and Eli believed him! I feel so alone and like no one will ever believe me.

"Sorry we didn't mean to ruin your party," Dallas says coming out to the fire escape and putting a blanket around me as he sits down next to me on the step.

"You didn't," I shake my head trying to sniffle in my tears so I can talk. I turn my head to look at Dallas, the changing traffic light and lights from the building across the street give his face a glow. I look at my hands and sigh with a shaky breath, "Asher frickin' Shostak ruined my birthday and Eli ruined it by breaking up with me."

"Breaking up with you on your birthday? That's very low," Dallas comments.

"The worst part isn't even that he broke up with me on my birthday it's that he…believed…Asher," I can barely finish the sentence as my voice starts to break and get squeaky and high as I'm very upset.

I burst into tears again; Dallas puts his arm around me. I barely know him but right now he's being nice and comforting and I turn into him and continue crying. I'm not sure if the party is still going or what they think happened to me, but I don't hear anyone else come into Drew's room and Drew is out with Bianca. Eventually the tears begin to dry up and Dallas takes his arm away moving me away from him. I'm sure that he's going to leave me there and go back to the party; I wouldn't blame him at all. He hardly knows me other than the fact that I'm Adam's best friend and I've been blubbering on him for who knows how long.

"Stay right there," Dallas tells me before going inside. He stays in there for a while and I begin to think he just went back to the party and told me to stay here so no one would see me crying. He doesn't though he returns with a bunch of blankets and some pillows in his arms. "Come on," he says walking up the fire escape.

I stand up and follow him up the fire escape to the roof where he lays down a couple of blankets, then puts down pillows and tells me to lie down. When I do he puts the other three thick blankets on top of us. Even though it's chilly outside it's very warm under all the blankets and next to Dallas. Lying up here alone and looking at the stars it's quiet and peaceful, it's the first serene moment I've had in days, possibly weeks, and it's very nice. After a while the silence begins to become uncomfortable and Dallas begins talking. He points up the stars and begins pointing out the constellations. After pointing them all out he tells me the origin of each constellation.

"How do you know so much about constellations?" I question.

"We put the glow in the dark stars in my son's room and I put them up in the patterns of all the constellations instead of randomly about. The only way he will get to sleep is to tell him about the constellations."

"You have a son?" I gasp.

"Yeah he's three, his name is Rock. He's back in Guelph with his mom. He was a mistake, a stupid one, I was young and horny and neither Vanessa nor I thought that she would get pregnant. He's also the best mistake I've ever made. I would never advise anyone to be a teenage parent but everything I do now I do thinking of my son. I wasn't sure I should come to Toronto to be on the Ice Hounds but Vanessa and I agreed it was worth it. Guelph's only an hour away and I can go home to see him every other weekend and some weekends he'll come here."

"So you left a son and a girlfriend back in Guelph?"

"Not a girlfriend, Vanessa and I haven't been together since before she found out she was pregnant. We remain amicable and have done most things together that concern Rocky but I don't have a girlfriend. Rocky spends time with me at my parents and with Vanessa and her parents," Dallas informs me and we're silent for a moment before he speaks again, "Do you want to talk? You were pretty upset earlier."

I take a deep breath and then just spill everything to Dallas. Everything about Asher, how excited I was to work with him and how he kissed me the night we were working on the article for Eli's play. Asher's apology which only let down my guard and how he tried to assault me in his car and then told his boss I came into him so I got fired. How I've been holding this secret for over a week and how tonight Eli broke up with me because he believed Asher.

"Adam said you and Eli had a lot of history I'm surprised he was so quick to not believe you."

"So was I," I sigh.

I start telling Dallas about Eli being bipolar and some of our history and while I'm talking we both fall asleep. As the night gets colder we move closer and closer together in our sleep seeking out the other person's body heat. When it begins to snow however we wake up.

"Come on it's very cold already and it's going to get colder," Dallas says getting up. We wrap ourselves in blankets and pick up the other blankets descending the fire escape.

Dallas is able to open the window and we climb in, we do however disturb Drew and Bianca who are asleep in his bed. Drew turns on his bedside light and looks at us.

"Sorry didn't mean to wake you but it was getting cold out there," Dallas apologizes.

"What were you doing out there?" Bianca yawns.

"We fell asleep on the roof while talking," I tell them as we set the blankets down.

"Heard your party kind of sucked and Eli broke up with you. Adam was really worried and he fell asleep on the sofa," Drew tells me.

"We'll go wake him up and get Clare home safe," Dallas says setting down the blankets.

We leave Drew's room and go out to the living room where Adam is sleeping on the sofa. I touch Adam's shoulder and his eyes open.

"Where were you?" Adam yawns sitting up.

"We were talking and fell asleep on the roof," I tell him.

"We should go home and Clare can sleep in Drew's old room. She was really upset and had a pretty crappy birthday," Dallas says.

"I agree, Mom's out of town and Dad has an early meeting tomorrow so they'll never know you were there," Adam nods.

The three of us leave Fiona's loft and get into Adam's car he drives us to his house. We go in quietly to the basement and I tell Adam what led to the breakup tonight. Adam is sad that we broke up but angry that Eli would believe Asher. We don't talk for very long and we're all tired so we go to bed, Adam says Drew left some clothes behind and I can borrow anything to sleep in. Adam says goodnight and happy birthday before I go into Drew's old room to sleep. I find Drew's DeGrassi Panthers football team t-shirt and decide that's fine to sleep in. So I fall asleep in Drew's old bed and Drew's old t-shirt after my boyfriend broke up with me and I fell asleep on the roof with a hockey player I barely know. Not at all how I pictured my seventeenth birthday.

 **(DALLAS)**

I wake up after about four hours of sleep, never sleep very much and usually run on about three to four hours of sleep so I'm not surprised. Omar left a couple of hours ago and when I go up to the third floor and check on Adam and Clare they're both sleeping soundly. So I go back downstairs and call Owen, fairly certain he'll be awake even though it's barely eight on a Saturday because we're all used to getting up early for practices.

"Hey," Owen answers.

"Hey can you pick me up I need help to kill a guy."

"Okay be there in ten minutes," Owen replies and hangs up. I throw on some clothes and get ready then wait outside for Owen, when I see him pull up I get into his SUV. "So who are we going to kill?" Owen asks.

"Asher Shostak, he works at The Interpreter," I inform him.

"Which would be where?" Owen questions.

I look up the address and we drive down to the building. I look up Asher Shostak and show Owen a picture. He doesn't even ask why I want to kill the guy just figures I have my reasons. We go up to the office and I see Asher but he has a glass office and we can't really kill him in an office full of people. So we go down to the lobby and wait for Asher to leave, I figure that he's a reporter and he must leave at some point. Thankfully we only have to wait for about an hour before we see him leave. Owen and I follow him out to the parking garage, Owen does think to check for cameras and when we don't see any I grab Asher's arm before he gets into his car. He looks very scared; I think he thinks we're going to rob him.

"I don't have any cash," he says with a slightly shaking voice.

"I don't want your money you asshole. You sick fucking pedophile you sexually assaulted Clare and told your boss she came onto you and got her fired!" I growl and shove him against his car. This is all news to Owen who goes red in the face and begins to snarl angrily.

"Clare came onto me, she…"

"There's no fucking way Clare came onto you," Owen says pushing Asher against the car even more and we both have him pinned. "I'm pretty sure Clare's not the first intern you've assaulted either. I doubt this is the first time you've tried this but I think maybe Clare was the first girl to say no to you," Owen says.

"I think you need to set the record straight because if you don't we'll be back," I inform Asher.

"And if we have to come back because you wouldn't come clean you will be lucky if you can ever use your hands again," Owen enlightens him. Then Owen and I each punch him in the stomach before we leave getting back in Owen's car to drive back to my house.

"How'd you know he'd assaulted other interns and how did you know Clare said no to him?" I ask Owen as he starts driving.

"Guys like that don't do that kind of thing once. He wouldn't have the gall to sexually assault Clare without having done it before. And I might not know Clare personally but I know enough about her to know she wouldn't just submit," Owen replies.

"Thanks for coming with me."

"No problem, how'd you find out anyway? Did you disappear to be with Clare last night?"

For the rest of the drive to my place I tell Owen about last night. When we get home we find not only Adam and Clare but Drew and Bianca.

"Where'd you go I've been calling you for two hours," Adam comments.

"Had a little talk with Asher," I reply.

"You did what?" Clare shrieks hopping up and coming over to us.

"Asher who?" Bianca inquires.

"Why would you go and do a fool thing like that?!" Clare demands while Owen sits on the sofa telling Drew and Bianca that Asher is Clare's co-op boss and he assaulted her.

"I wasn't going to let Asher get away with assaulting you and then blaming you."

"So you gave him fuel for his fire. He's just going to the cops and tell them you and Owen assaulted him or threatened him or whatever you did."

"A little of both. Don't worry Owen and I can alibi each other out and we'll have other members of the team do it. We told him to come clean about what happened we'd be back. I won't let him get away with what he did; he's done it before I'm not going to let him do it again."

"It was really sweet but I don't want you and Owen to get in trouble."

"Don't worry about us we'll be fine consider it your birthday present so you're birthday isn't completely terrible," I comment brushing a curl behind her ear.

"My birthday wasn't completely terrible because you saved it after Eli ruined it," Clare grins.

"This is just getting painful," Owen sighs walking over to us and then puts his thumb on my chin and begins moving my mouth up down. He then begins speaking for me in an overly gruff voice, "Clare I really like you, you're pretty and sexy and way smarter than me which is such a turn on will you go on a date with me now that Eli's out of the picture?"

Then Owen turns putting his thumb on Clare's chin moving her mouth. Just like he used an overly gruff voice for me he uses a terribly squeaky and high voice for Clare.

"Oh Dallas you're so hot I would love to go out with you."

Everyone is laughing including me and Clare. Owen sits back down and I take Clare's hand interlacing our fingers.

"So would you go out with me tonight?" I ask Clare in my own voice.

"I would like that," she grins and everyone else cheers. I smile but then Clare's cell rings and she looks at it furrowing her brow.

"Hello?" She answers her phone and then nods a few times. "Okay thanks," she says and hangs up. "That was Asher's boss, she said he confessed to coming onto me," Clare smiles and stands on her tip toes kissing my cheek, "Thank you that was the best birthday present I could have gotten, I've been vindicated. And now I have a date with a great guy, it's turned out to be a very good birthday."


End file.
